The Streamline Moderne 4th Avenue Theater was built in 1947 and was a first run movie house for the next four decades. When it opened, the opulent theater seated a combined 1,100 patrons in its balcony and main floor.

In the mid-1980’s, the city of Anchorage began restoring the theater and, later, it was taken over by the catering firm, Glacial Reflections. The company used it as a banquet and special events venue that fits between 500-700 people. It has been shuttered for several years.

The Municipality of Anchorage is doing nothing with this beautiful, old theater!

Between 7-8 years ago, there was a plan between the municipality and a private company to refurbish the theater, using the downstairs for businesses of some kind and the upper floors for residences, but after a long process to get to that point, at the last hour a councilwoman threw a monkey wrench in the plan by deciding she didn’t think the municipality should be involved in any funding after-all.

The private company basically told the municipality to take a hike, refusing to work with it anymore because it was “unreliable.” There’s been no public discussion of the theater since. It currently is doing what it’s been doing for years now, just sitting, boarded up and rotting. What a travesty!